[K12OSN] Release cycle too fast

[Les Mikesell]

On Fri, 2005-04-01 at 09:16, Rob Owens wrote:
> > In many cases you can do a version upgrade but you
> > don't quite end up with the same thing so it is
> > better
> > to re-install, then back in your local changes.  
> 
> Yeah, but even a version upgrade involves sitting in
> front of the computer and feeding it cd's, right? 
> When my sister who lives 3000 miles away needs an
> upgrade, I guess I'm going to have to walk her through
> it.  If I had to do that with my parents, I think I'd
> shoot myself.  Luckily they live close by.

Usually what I do is download the iso images to an NFS exported
directory, burn the first disk and boot it with 'linux askmethod'
so I can pick NFS.  Then you answer all the questions at first,
go away for a long time and come back with it finished.  It can
be even more automated with a kickstart file or pointed to
a vncviewer if you have to control it remotely.  Fortunately, the
machines I mange remotely have front-swappable drive carriers so
I do major upgrades by building the drives on a spare box and
shipping them ready to go, so I haven't had to work out a foolproof
remote procedure.  With the drive swap there is always a fast
way to put things back in case what you planned didn't quite work...

> > I think the
> > real key to making it easy to keep up is going to be
> > to put
> > your /home directories and services that need to
> > keep working
> > (authentication, email, dns, etc.) on a stable
> > server - Centos 4.0
> > might be a good choice now,  
> 
> But that server will need to be upgraded about once a
> year in order to keep getting security updates, right?
>  Or are updates for Centos available for longer? 

Yes, Centos is a free clone of RedHat Enterprise minus the
brand name and artwork.  Updates are expected to be available
for 5 years.

> Upgrading once a year isn't a big deal if that's your
> job, but for a home user who may not be very computer
> savy, it can be.

If you aren't interested in new features you can still
get security/bug-fix updates from the free legacy support
project: http://fedoralegacy.org/download/. You can
reconfigure apt/yum and keep running.  Fedora core1 is
very usable and I have several machines still running it.

Eric: if you are reading this, would it be possible/difficult
to either mirror the legacy updates so they show up where
older k12ltsp setups will get them automatically, or push
out a yum.conf update that includes them?


> I know the easy answer is "if you don't understand
> computers, then pay somebody who does".  I guess I'm
> just surprised that something as powerful as linux
> does not allow me to upgrade somebody's operating
> system from anywhere in the world without having
> somebody feed cd's into the computer.  After all,
> every bit of software is on the internet.

It does.  You just have to be prepared for a glitch
in connectivity to leave you in limbo, and the
major upgrades make drastic changes to things so
it is much safer to do a completely new install.
If you put your own data (/home for example) on separate
partitions that you don't format and save a backup of
/etc in case you have to debug anything in the new
config it isn't too difficult. 

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com